Colour � Red, Standing out from the crowd

Colour plays a huge role in photography. Yes I know you can get excellent black and white photographs but the greater majority of pictures are taken in colour.

What I have found with colour, is that it can change a mundane, or basic picture, into something that is eye-catching and memorable.

For example�

would this picture catch your eye without the boy with the bright red top sat on the branch. The red transforms the subtle shades of green into a picture that says look at me.

In this next picture the simple garden path has also been transformed with colour.

The addition of the red rake in the picture adds a focal point to attract the eye to the image, before it wanders around the rest of the picture. It also adds a feeling of story to the scene and that is a key element when viewing a photograph.

Red, being one of the prime colours, is dominate in drawing your attention, even in busy traffic the addition of a red bus stands out from the rest of the scene.

The rest of the scene in this photograph may be worthy of attention in itself but it is the red bus that attracts the eye first.

Red is used by nature to attract attention, such as a flower to attract insects or an insect saying leave me alone I�m dangerous to eat. We use red in our road signs too to symbolize danger as it stands out from the rest of the scene and attracts the eye to it. Red is used in advertising as well as it�s strong colour attracts the eye.

Red = Strong colour = Attracting to the eye.

(Not always pleasing to the eye but always attracting).

By my use of colour, in this instance �Red�, to accent my photos it helps to accent the image, and hopefully for these examples you will agree it has worked to a greater or lesser extent. That doesn�t mean it will work for every photo, you still have to balance the pro�s of the boldness of the colour attracting the eye against the subtleties of the rest of the scene. A red object will nearly always steal the attention of the viewer, so if the main object has more muted tones, then try and avoid getting the strong red coloured object in the frame so it doesn�t steal the show.

Why don�t you have a go yourself photograph bold, red images.

For those followers of the header challenge I am very pleased to announce that my fellow contributors saw fit to award me Gold this week. I am as you may guess very happy and somewhat shell shocked that I received this accolade after only just joining the group two weeks ago. A very big thank you to fishing guy, imac, Lanny and Gailsman for this honour.

Why don�t you go and visit their blogs and check out their wonderful posts and headers, just click on their names or follow the links in the right column.

 

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